MLB.com on Rutschman: read this and drool!

[OriolesMagic83]

22 minutes ago, Hallas said:

 

I'm normally wary about extensions for catchers because of injury risk, but I feel like he could switch positions in about 5-6 years and still have a decent career elsewhere.  He's athletic enough to play somewhere other than DH and 1B, and his bat plays anywhere on the diamond.  As long as he can stay injury free while catching I'm looking to sign him for as long as 8-9 years.

Why not Adley as 1b and backup catcher.  Come playoff time, Adley is starting catcher.  Want to get sick?  Mountcastle's OBP is .297.  There is no reason a power hitting 1 B should have a .297 OBP.  

[Baltimorecuse]

Teams are pitching around him already.  

[Il BuonO]

11 minutes ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

Why not Adley as 1b and backup catcher.  Come playoff time, Adley is starting catcher.  Want to get sick?  Mountcastle's OBP is .297.  There is no reason a power hitting 1 B should have a .297 OBP.  

Sure there is, it’s called not having command of the strike zone as a hitter. Buck had it right initially when he scolded RM’s plate discipline. He needs to be patient and in turn he’ll get better pitches to hit. That may never happen.

It’s one reason why I floated the idea of keeping Mancini at 1B, not as a DH and trading the power hitting (yeah, not lately) Mountcastle. I still like him and while he’s improved at 1B defensively, it’s not positionally significant insofar as just about anyone can be taught to play 1B. It’s easy….cue the Moneyball clip of Bean and Washington talking with Hatteberg. And cue @Can of Corn dragging me for even contemplating such an action.

AR is better than RM, but I swear I love Mountcastle!

[Baltimorecuse]

We've all seen Mountcastle flat out miss a pile of hittable pitches.  Add that to losing the strike zone and you have a disaster. 

[Hallas]

1 hour ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

Why not Adley as 1b and backup catcher.  Come playoff time, Adley is starting catcher.  Want to get sick?  Mountcastle's OBP is .297.  There is no reason a power hitting 1 B should have a .297 OBP.  

That's honestly a waste of his talents right now. Not sure we want to put a guy that has all the skills to be a plus defender at C at first base.  If anything I'd put him at 3rd or RF.  He's pretty athletic and can handle those positions.

Edited August 6, 2022 by Hallas

[sportsfan8703]

Buster Posey 2.0

[Can_of_corn]

6 hours ago, Hallas said:

That's honestly a waste of his talents right now. Not sure we want to put a guy that has all the skills to be a plus defender at C at first base.  If anything I'd put him at 3rd or RF.  He's pretty athletic and can handle those positions.

I'm not interested in adding learning to play right field or third base to his plate.

[sportsfan8703]

The Adley Effect

[Sports Guy]

10 hours ago, Baltimorecuse said:

Teams are pitching around him already.  

That’s because he’s easily our best player and the rest of the offense isn’t good.  

[waroriole]

11 hours ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

Why not Adley as 1b and backup catcher.  Come playoff time, Adley is starting catcher.  Want to get sick?  Mountcastle's OBP is .297.  There is no reason a power hitting 1 B should have a .297 OBP.  

It’s probably better to let him rest as the DH when he’s not catching. If Mountcastle continues to hit so poorly, just rotate Santander/Stowers/Urias/Vavra in at 1B. 

[SilverRocket]

Only Trevino has a higher fWAR/game of any catcher this year. And bbref has Rutschman higher. With the retirements of Posey and Yadier, it looks like Rutschman will probably be the first great catcher of the next era.

 

https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=c&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=50&type=8&season=2022&month=0&season1=2022&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2022-01-01&enddate=2022-12-31

#	Name	Team	G	PA	HR	R	RBI	SB	BB%	K%	ISO	BABIP	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	xwOBA	wRC+	BsR	Off	Def	WAR
1	J.T. Realmuto	PHI	91	369	11	49	49	13	8.1%	20.3%	.165	.306	.263	.336	.428	.334	.331	113	3.5	9.3	9.9	3.3
2	Jose Trevino	NYY	76	221	10	29	34	2	5.0%	16.7%	.192	.278	.264	.303	.457	.328	.290	115	0.7	4.4	20.4	3.3
3	Will Smith	LAD	91	380	15	43	56	0	10.8%	16.3%	.196	.289	.269	.358	.465	.358	.369	134	-1.0	14.1	2.2	3.1
4	Sean Murphy	OAK	96	393	13	45	47	1	8.1%	21.9%	.193	.285	.244	.319	.437	.327	.346	117	-1.7	5.9	10.8	3.0
5	Alejandro Kirk	TOR	94	352	12	48	40	0	11.4%	9.7%	.164	.305	.302	.386	.466	.372	.372	141	-5.0	11.4	5.6	2.9
6	Willson Contreras	CHC	90	392	16	54	41	3	9.7%	21.7%	.220	.294	.253	.367	.473	.369	.369	137	-0.7	16.3	-2.1	2.9
7	Jonah Heim	TEX	84	310	13	44	38	2	9.0%	20.3%	.196	.282	.254	.319	.450	.334	.292	119	-0.1	6.6	8.0	2.6
8	Daulton Varsho	ARI	96	384	15	48	50	7	8.6%	23.7%	.188	.282	.240	.314	.428	.324	.319	106	1.3	3.9	6.9	2.5
9	Adley Rutschman	BAL	59	239	5	35	19	2	12.6%	17.6%	.191	.291	.250	.356	.441	.350	.343	127	2.9	10.3	5.6	2.4
10	Travis d'Arnaud	ATL	70	285	11	39	40	0	4.2%	20.4%	.180	.283	.251	.298	.431	.317	.302	101	-1.8	-1.5	10.4	1.9
11	Cal Raleigh	SEA	76	262	15	26	38	1	8.8%	30.5%	.251	.224	.200	.271	.451	.310	.306	106	-0.7	1.0	9.2	1.9
12	Victor Caratini	MIL	56	185	8	21	21	0	13.0%	20.5%	.188	.257	.234	.357	.422	.344	.338	120	-1.2	3.2	6.3	1.7
13	Tyler Stephenson	CIN	50	183	6	24	35	1	6.6%	25.7%	.163	.409	.319	.372	.482	.370	.318	134	0.6	7.9	1.2	1.6
14	William Contreras	ATL	54	205	14	28	27	2	11.7%	26.3%	.282	.283	.254	.341	.536	.376	.358	141	-0.8	9.1	-1.2	1.6

[Hallas]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

That’s because he’s easily our best player and the rest of the offense isn’t good.  

Rutschman's o-swing rate is top-15 in the league, and better than any O's player that I can think of from at least the past 15 years, and possibly longer.  Maybe they're pitching around him but he's also doing a really good job in terms of not overextending himself at the plate.

[RZNJ]

On 8/5/2022 at 2:36 PM, accinfo said:

Where are all the experts here that said Adley was a bad pick at 1/1 after his first week in the majors?  If I saw someone else write he was 24.5 years old and would never live up to his draft position I was going to scream! 

Quotes of those posts would be good for laughs.   

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

16 hours ago, Baltimorecuse said:

Teams are pitching around him already.  

Seems to be happening every game now with Adley getting pitched around and drawing a walk. 

[Can_of_corn]

He's up to 2.8 rWAR (7.6/162) and 2.6 fWAR. 

While I don't think he can beat out Julio Rodriguez I think he has a real shot to run down Pena and end up with a top two finish in the ROY voting despite his slow start.

Name recognition, great performance, solid narrative.